Just before takeoff en route to San Jose last week, the flight captain announced that the San Diego State men’s basketball team was on board. The whole cabin erupted.

It’s in health clubs, too.

When SDSU alumnus Mark Lucas walked into his aerobics class at 24 Hour Fitness Monday, his instructor instantly held up five fingers. The message was clear: “We’re No. 5.”

That’s right. No. 5 in the country. Unthinkable when you consider that the Aztecs received zero votes in either Top 25 poll before the season began. Unimaginable when you realize that they were picked to finish fourth in their conference.

Yeah, the books will likely come in handy when midterms come around, but why not hold a mini exam right now? Three questions on SDSU’s past, present and future, due by the end of this column.

Ready?

How did the Aztecs get here? Interesting question. The simple answer is that they just don’t lose. Since their Nov. 14 defeat to Arizona — then No. 6 and now the No. 1 team in the country — the Aztecs have won 17 straight games.

Two of these victories came against Creighton and Marquette, which were ranked 20th and 25th, respectively — but the splash of water that woke the voters came Jan. 5, when they beat then-No. 16 Kansas in Lawrence on national television. (Kansas is now ranked No. 6, just behind the Aztecs in the AP poll.)

The more sophisticated answer, however, is this: defense. The Aztecs have held opponents to a field-goal percentage of 36.2, the lowest in the nation; the 56.1 points they allow per game is third. That’ll win a lot of games. Which begs the question…

Why were they ever doubted? Because nobody thought they’d have any offense.

Scribes knew that senior point guard Xavier Thames was good, but they didn’t forecast him averaging 17.6 points per game and making 46 percent of his 3-pointers. They didn’t think that sophomore Winston Shepard would mature into a matchup nightmare, or that senior transfer Josh Davis would average 11.6 rebounds per game. So far, every question mark for the Aztecs has become an exclamation point, which makes us ask…